The Federal Government has advised the public not to allow scaremongers to make them worry about the country’s debt profile both domestically and externally.
This was made known by the Minister for information and culture, Lai Mohammadd, while briefing newsmen on the achievements of President Buhari.
He also spoke of misrepresentations in the figures being peddled on the debt profile. He also added that the debt ceiling of 25 per cent in total public debt stock to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has not been reached by the country.
“Recently, there have been concerns in certain circles about the country’s growing debt, both domestic and external.
“In the process, there has been some misrepresentations and scare mongering.
“We, therefore, believe it is important to put things in perspective, so our citizens will be well informed,’’ he said.
According to the minister, it is not correct to say that Nigeria’s external debt alone is 81.274 billion dollars.
“The public debt stock is actually a cumulative figure of borrowings by successive governments over many years.
“It is, therefore, not appropriate to attribute the public debt stock to one administration.
“Nigeria’s total public debt stock in 2015 was 63.80 billion dollars comprising 10.31 billion dollars of external debt and 53.49 billion dollars domestic debt.
“By June 2019, the total debt stock was 83.883 billion dollars, made up of 27.163 billion dollars of external debt and 56.720 billion dollars domestic debt,’’ he clarified